Silent Retreat (2013) User Reviews

intriguing idea needs more work

[SnoopyStyle · 4/10 · 2 July 2016]

Janey Andrews lost her family in a crash. She's alone in the world. A judge sends her to a meditation retreat for assault despite her plea of self-defense. The all-female retreat is in the middle of the woods run a doctor and his two sons. The women are forbidden to speak or even make eye contact. Janey tries to escape but she's captured by one of the sons although he seems to be afraid of something in the woods.

It's a watchable Canadian indie horror. It starts off with a creepy notion of these women being controlled by this weird doctor. It could have gone down many different paths. It tries to do something with sound. At least, it's unusual. It does need to decide whether the creature is attracted by sound or is hurt by it. It may make more sense for everybody to be quiet including the men. It may be even better if the doctor's introduction is done in a sound-proof room. The sound idea has issues that needs to be addressed. As for the creature itself, it is not the best although I'm sure the low budget restricted the movie. The main problem is the way the creature moves and the way it is filmed. It isn't scary. The blood looks too red especially in the dark. This horror has an intriguing premise and it needs more work to hash it out.

Mediocre yet successful in its own right

[Howling_at_the_Moon_Reviews · 5/10 · 8 July 2022]

This really wasn't all that bad. Definitely felt amateurish and quite indi at times but definitely also had some successful moments for what it was. Felt more like a teenage intro to horror/creature feature.

The acting was quite mediocre and stilted at times but everyone had decent moments and did a fine job. The monster was a tad costumey looking but hey, we are working on an indi budget here, so not awful. The dialogue could have used some refining and the plot some beefing up to increase originality and intrigue.

Regardless of that, overall I was decently entertained. Don't go into this expecting a mature, wildly scary horror blockbuster. If you can appreciate it for what it is I would recommend.

Interesting look at female conformity is unfocused, unbalanced and dishonest

[Wuchakk · 4/10 · 17 September 2023]

A troubled teen (Chelsea Jenish) is brought to a strange rehabilitation camp in the woods of the Northeast, which is run by a stern "doctor" and his two sons. The patients are all female and no one is permitted to talk. Meanwhile something malevolent lurks in the woods.

"Silent Retreat" (2013) was shot in Ontario and only cost $185,000 (USD), but is professionally made Indie drama/horror. The locations, actors, music, cinematography, editing and so forth are surprisingly effective for super low-budget fare. Sofia Banzhaf (Alexis) and Jen Pogue (Pink Stripe) stand out in the feminine department.

Unfortunately, there are a few glaring problems. For one, the creature angle wasn't needed and feels undeveloped, not to mention it needlessly turns an interesting story about conformity into gory monster mayhem. Think "The Stepford Wives," minus the robotics, mixed with a dash of "Gargoyles" and the typical Tarantino bloody climax. Then there's the eye-rolling sapphic bit at around the 35-minute mark, which is also just thrown in with zero development. No doubt the director/writer wanted to score points for political correctness and attract an award, which ironically smacks of conformity.

The third issue is the one-dimensional depiction of males and females. There's no balance regarding either gender in liberated Western Civilization. Literally ALL women are suppressed and oppressed while ALL men are controlling, abusing monsters. If this were remotely so, how exactly did Oprah and Ellen have their popular shows and become billionaires?

Then there's the one-dimensional depiction of the Bible's view of women. Don't get me wrong, there are men in real-life like the "doctor," but how about featuring a little more info for some honest balance? Otherwise, viewers will walk away with a skewed understanding of what the Scriptures actually teach on the topic. For instance, God chose Deborah to lead Israel for 40 years spiritually, legally, politically and militarily (Judges 2:16 & 4:4-9). Hebrew men sought instruction from prophetess Huldah (2 Kings 22:14-20). Miriam assumed the role of prophet during the exodus and led in worship (Exodus 15:20-21). Keep in mind that this was a patriarchal culture in the Near East.

Furthermore, the first evangelists in the New Testament were women sent by Christ who instructed men (Mark 16:1, Luke 24:10, Matthew 28:1-10 & Mark 16:7). Priscilla taught scholar Apollos "more accurately" (Acts 18:24-26). Your see, there is neither male nor female IN Christ (Galatians 3:28). Women with the prophetic gift were expected to prophesy to others and not keep silent, as well as pray in public (1 Corinthians 11:4-5). Philip the evangelist "had four unmarried daughters who prophesied" (Acts 21:9). I'm just supplying additional information for those who might walk away from this film with a twisted understanding of the topic.

I realize this is a low-budget Indie, but how about some balance simply for the sake of honesty and realism?

The movie runs 1 hour, 24 minutes, and was shot in Kettleby, Ontario (I'm assuming Kettleby Valley Camp), which is a dozen miles north of Toronto.

GRADE: C-/D+

What?

[Red_Identity · 29 September 2014]

The fact that so many reviews point out the inconsistency in tone of the film is a hint. I mean, I get it, I get that they wanted to do all of this, but it just doesn't work. The first half of the film is fine, it's just that it seems to turn direction in such a jarring way that it really kills all the momentum it had been building up. The performances are fine, even if the characters are nothing to write home about, and the production values for an indie film are also pretty impressive. It really comes down to the screenplay and the fact that the directing needed to be toned down a bit. Even for a good time, this doesn't all work, although it could've.

We are so oppressed...

[alucardvenom · 1/10 · 16 September 2014]

I've heard some good thing about this movie, so I give it a chance (even tho AfterDark movies are usually hit or miss).

While it started out OK, then turned weird since it had no dialog for the first 20 minutes or so (which I actually liked), it sacrificed it's premise for more of a standard movie, because message has to be heard, right?

and the feminist(ic) overtone in this movie are so obvious that it really start to hear your ears. While I have no problems with some feminist tones in movies like Stepford Wifes (original): it had feminist ideas within the story, but it still treated itself like sf horror movie, but in Silent Run? Hell no!

Most of the dialogues consist of usual feminist tropes like "We are so oppressed, no one wants to hear us, man want to change us" to the point that movie become too annoying. Every man in this movie is complete psycho who want women to bi silent, obedient and "perfect" wives for themselves who must be at kitchen (they also want girls for their wives purely based on their looks!). They even showed the "woman in kitchen" mame image treating it like serious thing for brainwashing young girls. I am not even kidding. Creature itself that happens to be in the woods for some reason is also a female (also in sign of feminism).

Robert Nolan is only saving grace, he is really good in most of his scenes. Other two lead actresses are also rather descent, it's not their fault that movie is so absurd.

There are some FX scenes which are well made, descent amount of gore for this type of movie (maybe even too much), some blood. Creature design was descent, but not too original, you'll swear you've seen it in some other movie.

Ending was ridiculous with needless fight scene at the end, because hey, you must satisfy the casual audience (who will probably be bored by then anyway). If movie ended with strong emotional scene that happen before it (also, applause for two lead actresses, it was carried purely on their acting, because script didn't do anything to root for any of their characters), it would end on high note, but nope, let's do the generic fight scene and end the movie.

Honestly, if this movies wasn't "So-obviously-feministic" movie, I would probably like it more, but I really couldn't stand annoyance of majority of lines being "we are so oppressed by those evil man"... or at least keep your feminist views at minimum and don't use your movie as way to express your own socio-political ideas.

Look how Stepford Wives turned out (which I actually liked). It managed to poke at feminist ideas, but it was still enjoyable, creepy and "legit" horror movie. It was never used as a way to spew ideas right into audiences faces.

This has some well executed scenes at the end that make it worth a watch but missed an opportunity to be great

[kevin_robbins · 5/10 · 30 July 2023]

Silent Retreat (2013) is a Canadian movie that I recently watched on Prime. The storyline follows a troubled young lady who is sent to a unique rehabilitation retreat where she isn't allowed to talk. It is rumored there's a dark past at the rehab center and a creature that eats people in the surrounding woods. When other young ladies turn up missing at the center, the students don't know if they've been released, eaten by the creature in the woods or worse... The new girl is itching to find out what's what and try to free the other girls.

This movie is directed by Tricia Lee (Blood Hunters) and stars Sofia Banzhaf (Splinters), Robert Nolan (Sixty Minutes to Midnight), Jen Pogue (The Masked Saint) and Katie Buitendyk (Total Frat Movie).

I found the first hour of this movie frustrating. The storyline was fairly straightforward with some unique elements. There is some good subplots and character development baked in. The acting, writing and dialogue were uneven and disappointing at times. Even the first few horror scenes, which were limited, were shot too dark and missed the mark. But an hour into the movie the horror elements kick up a notch and you get your first great kill with gore and solid flesh eating. The creature in the woods reveal is outstanding and I was left wondering where that was the entire movie. The conclusion is actually pretty good if you can be patient enough to get to it.

Overall, this has some well executed scenes at the end that make it worth a watch but missed an opportunity to be great. I would score this a 5/10 and recommend seeing it once.

Pick A Lane (Synopsis)

[relapse-099 · 1/10 · 11 August 2019]

The movie starts with this cold open of a girl screaming but that whole thing doesn't come up until like an hour of the movie is over. When the actual movie starts, we meet the main character who is dropped off at this detention centre. We meet the villain of the movie who is pretty much a stereotypical creepy movie person. You know, slicked back hair and all that. He goes over the rules of the place and also mentions how this is the only conversation that the main character, Janey, is going to have at the camp. That is a lie, cause there's pretty much a conversation in the next scene; but whatever. The rules are: no talking, no eye contact, and a lot of obedience stuff. All the characters, including the rule makers, will break these rules constantly throughout the movie. In the next scene, all the girls at the place are walking to dinner, but they are walking from a place where they don't even live, so I don't know why they were walking from there. Janey tries to ask about the camp to one of the girls and is shut down because a rule is no talking. The main character not knowing the rules is a recurring theme. Also, they try to make her seem like, special or something, but they kind of just hope you go with it. They don't tell you why she's special, or why you should care about her. They're just like, here you go, she's the main character so like her. Look, she cares about her family, like her! Anyways, they go get dinner and we meet some creepy dude and a less creepy dude who work in the kitchen I guess? The blonde girl that Janey tried to talk to snitched on her, so Janey didn't get any dinner, but the blonde girl got in trouble as well for some reason. I guess they don't want the rules to be enforced? The main guy also breaks the rules like 4 times this scene. They made a huge deal about the no talking, yet they won't shut the hell up. After dinner the main character showers in a scene that didn't need to exist and then goes to bed. The guards are on like, night patrol and one of them just stares at this girl with no shirt on for 10 seconds. We already knew the guys were creepy, this scene also was pointless. Then, we're in Janey's cabin, where she's listening to music. The music is noise, to reference some monster that comes up later in the movie, but headphones don't bleed that loud, and when the cord gets ripped out music keeps playing and that doesn't happen in real life. Like, they paid no attention to any details at all, and that's something that happens later as well. It doesn't make any sense. In the morning we get the first meditation scene. These are pretty frequent, and nothing actually happens in them even though it's supposed to make us get something about the movie. If you had no idea what is happening later on in the movie it's cause these scenes were actually terrible. Like they last 3 seconds and it's just counting down. I know it's supposed to be ambiguous and stuff but you have to hint to something. In this section of the movie too, it's supposed to go over the daily routine of boredom and silence but the scenes are short and so awkwardly cut. Then there's just one part where the blonde chick from earlier is just smoking a dart at a place we never see again. At this point, the movie is just badly directed. There's a scene where Janey is walking, and it just films her for like a full minute, and I'm pretty sure the shot is looped. Also, the same music just plays in the background for 30 minutes. It's just such lazy directing. One part there's this flashing light in a mysterious cabin but it's clearly just someone clicking a flashlight on and off. They're trying to set up for the end of the movie, but it's all super rushed somehow even though absolutely nothing happens. It's honestly impressive how badly done the set up part of the movie is. The villain warns the girl about a two strikes and you're out policy. First of all, every girl there has at least 7 strikes at this point so they're so inconsistent with that. Second of all, why 2 strikes. What's wrong with 3 strikes. You could have so easily fit a 2nd strike somewhere in the movie, but I guess something had to be unique cause literally nothing else in the movie is. They just keep going through days and nothing happens still, I was wondering if this movie actually had a plot, but all the sudden at a meal everyone starts throwing up, and one girl that we haven't met yet tells our hero to not eat. It's cause she poisoned the food, and we're not told how she even accomplished this, cause it'd be pretty tough to do. Also, no one questions why everyone's throwing up but two people. Also, it's not even the best distraction cause everyone is conscious still, but somehow they manage to sneak away. The girl we meet also had no motivation to save Janey, they haven't talked the whole movie. Where did their relationship come from? They have a conversation and figure out something is odd about the place they're at, which is pretty obvious. They needed this scene though, so the characters could tell you what happened in the movie so far cause everyone watching should be pretty lost. Alexis, the friend we meet, literally just tells the audience what we need to know, then the scene is over...and they walk back and no one noticed they were gone somehow. So now Alexis terribly sneaks into Janey's cabin and the movie makes it's first effort to make us care about a character. Janey talks about her family and stuff, cause that's her motivation, but you don't actually hear any of it cause you're probably laughing at the slow zoom on her face for a hot minute. The only important lines are how screaming means you didn't give up, and some garbage about her family. I just remember the line "he just died", cause it was hilarious. I believe she was talking about her dad. So now things actually happen, Basically, they're trying to steal a car, but also need to figure out what happens during a creepy cabin that people are brought to during meditation. They are looking for car keys and there's at least 35 keys on the wall, but they are like old school dungeon keys. I don't know why they need that many keys, there's like one place to lock up. Also, they got into the place with the keys super easily. They finally investigate the cabin and find that they're all brainwashed through the meditation thing. Alexis realizes she's been there for 2 years, but in the scene, she says she's been there since October 22nd, 2012. That's the big reveal. The thing about that is, they never told us the date of the movie, so how are we supposed to realize that's a big deal. That's all. So they're in the creepy basement, find out the brainwashing thing, then they run this slideshow. Also, how hasn't the villain got to the cabin yet, it's a 30 second walk. So, what's going on at the camp essentially is the creepy dudes are turning, or trying to turn, the girls into obedient wives, which is like a super creepy thing and could have made a good premise, but they barely alluded to it and then in the slideshow they literally have to spell out what is happening to you. Like LITERALLY spell it out. They tell you in words on the screen. I guess it sort of made sense, but it didn't. You barely notice the whole wife thing except that one line I mentioned earlier, so it's sort of like, I guess that makes sense, but it's just cause they told you. Now, however, the movie just loses it's mind. Alexis gets chained to a tree cause I guess that's strike 2 and we learn about some monster that they made very little effort incorporating into the movie. The monster is attracted to noise, or hates noise or something. Alexis is screaming, and Janey comes to help, and is lightly hitting a rock against the lock which is doing nothing. They make it back into the main area where the villain is talking to the rest of the girls. The main characters explain they're being brainwashed, and they all start saying names which makes the villain freak out for some reason. He runs out of the room, pulls this cord, and jumps into a closet. It makes no sense. Then music starts playing loudly, I guess to summon the monster. Like, now the movie is just a slasher movie, it was a psychological thing, but I guess we're done with that. Now it's a violent slasher. The monster gets in the building and just starts eating chicks. It's super violent and the murders look like someone just pulling at raw ground beef. This movie has no sense of build-up though, it just turned into a monster thing. The end of the movie is just everyone dies. The villain at one point slits the blonde girl's throat and says we have two more b*t*hs to put down. He was a creepy doctor and now he's a serial killer. When we meet the monster, it's just like, what? It's this sort of racist looking thing with a fur coat, and... i don't even know. Alexis is super injured from the monster so Janey has to pull her to the creepy cabin, and the monster doesn't even come until they're safely inside. The monster's summoning isn't caused by noise, just when it's convenient for the writers honestly. So, this is the dumbest part. The monster is knocking on the door for a full minute and can't get in. Alexis is making a lot of noise, but the monster can't get in. Do they wait it out? Nope. Janey strangles the only other alive good person. The only witness to everything she's seen, her ally, and she just kills her. Why? Janey goes back and has a badly acted knife fight with the villain and gets the monster to kill him. Now it's her and the monster, which she kills with...noise? She starts screaming and the monster starts bleeding. It also has a baby which was never explained. Was the baby Janey's? Was the monster Janey's dad? Who knows. All I know is, this movie sucks.

Why are we being so quiet?

[theshockchamber · 7/10 · 21 November 2014]

There's a girl running through the woods, panicked, beaten, with a leash around her neck, and begging for forgiveness. We hear growls, and the louder they get, the more panic overcomes this girl. Something unseen creeps up on her, and violence ensues. Death becomes her.....

This is a story about a young lady named Janey, a girl with a painful past, who was sentenced to a month at a retreat for behavioral modification. Upon arrival at the camp she meets Dr. Prince. He immediately comes across as a prick as he explains her the rules: NO TALKING, NO HAND GESTURES, NO PHONES, NO EYE CONTACT. NO MORE THAN 5 GIRLS CAN BE UNDER THEIR CARE AT A TIME. We already know from the opening that something more awaits the girls in the darkness of the woods surrounding camp, but what role does the Dr play, with the help of his only employees, his 2 sons Albert and Paul? She is settled in and her "treatment" begins.

As the girls begin to rebel, with Janey's influence, we meet Alexis. Together, Alexis and Janey are determined to get down to the root of the real purpose for the camp. As they begin snooping and spying, and some vomit inducing trickery, we soon find out the real Purpose of the camp. It's not to reform bad girls. It's not to teach them any skills, so don't expect to see any of the girls earning their badge for wicker weaving either. There's a deeper, darker bit of mind fuckery going on here.

What is this fuckery I speak of? I'm glad you asked. Come to find out, the judge that sentenced the girls to the camp is the brother of Dr Prince. They have this bible thumping fanatical idea of how women should carry themselves. It is their life's goal to break these girls down, through intense and drug induced brainwashing, turning into voiceless, weak, perfectly obedient wives, and the ones that fail the treatment test are sacrificed to what lurks in the woods. The ones to succeed will be their brides, only none thus far have been able to be completely broken down, and ultimately become dinner to the thing hiding in the woods.

Will Janey, Alexis, and the other 3 girls overcome the Prince family's tactics, and escape their horrible fate? Will they escape the thing in the woods that lurks around the camp borders? You will have to watch and find out. There were some slow moments in the film but it makes up with a twisted tale and a nice amount of guts and gore leading into the films climax. I enjoyed watching Silent Retreat, and I think many of you may too.

Fun if slightly flawed creature feature

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 7/10 · 9 October 2016]

Sent to a retreat in the woods, a troubled woman is sent to a retreat in the middle of the woods where she finds the owners are secretly brainwashing women into being obedient wives and feeding the rejects to a deranged creature nearby and tries to get away alive.

This one was quite an intriguing if really flawed creature feature. Among the better qualities here is the way this one builds up the really intriguing premise of the retreat out in the middle of the woods run by the sinister family that enforces a strict series of rules on them for their beneficial behavior. It's rather interesting how it manages to build this in the first half as there's the rules in play that simply make no sense yet creates an atmosphere here where it's all about ensuring the supposedly-perfect spawning ground for their secret agenda which is one of the more dark and sinister motives here for covering up their tracks, yet still manages to create the kind of fun here wallowing in this chilling atmosphere with the silence, refusal to acknowledge anyone and the general state of forced serenity created makes this a quite chilling set-up. Once it gets to the later half and there's the fun of the creature thrown into the mix that not only makes for a solid storyline addition as well as helping to aid in his mission this one does become a lot more fun with the additional body-count added to the creepiness displayed by the set-up as the first encounter out in the woods rescuing her friend leads to the action-packed massacre of the girls in the cabin as well as the aftermath of cleaning up after it which makes for some even better fun throughout here. As well, that leaves the ending confrontation quite thrilling as well with plenty of fine encounters that are rather bloody and really kick this one up somewhat. These here are what hold this one up over it's few minor flaws present. The main feature holding this one back is the utterly bland and boring beginning half which is quite low on action as it just tends to focus on the setup of the secret cult or her trying to adapt to the rules of the place which are just utterly bland and really keep the film pretty slow-going in this part of the film and keep the creature off-screen during this time. While that occurs, it's also quite a relief since the creature here is a complete joke with many really bad flaws about it, namely the awful look of the thing which is clearly hampered by it's low-budget nature but also the just weak design as well since it looks really lame and has a weak prosthetic look that doesn't help it much even if that wasn't the case. These here really hold this one back.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Language.

Canadian Award Winner

[gregsrants · 6/10 · 4 September 2014]

Janey (Chelsea Jenish) is a trouble child. And for her efforts, or lack thereof, is sent off to a remote retreat for nonconformist girls under the guidance of a doctor (Robert Nolan) whose methods are ….a bit radical. The Doctor, and his staff of male accomplices, uses hypnosis and other extreme techniques to get their subjects to comply with their rules that command their patients to be completely obedient through deafening silence. Failure to obey the directions beyond their imposed 'two-strike rule' will result in the subject being fed to a lurking creature that inhabits the surrounding woods.

Janey is hardly the conformist. And her rebellious attitude towards the retreat's rules and regulators eventually lead to unavoidable confrontation. But with other girls simply disappearing, Janey must weigh her defiance against the risks of being overpowered by either the male administrators or the evil yet to be revealed from the outside.

Director Tricia Lee makes her feature film debut with Silent Retreat and shows a high degree of talent in transitioning genres. The film's opening scene is unquestionably horror, but the film switches gears and takes more of a dramatic path for the middle act focusing on Janey's relationship with fellow prisoner Alexis (Sofia Banzhaf) and the regimented retreat rules. We got lost ourselves for a while forgetting for a few moments that there was something mysteriously lurking within the forest. A mysterious something that reveals itself in the film's final chapters reminding us that Silent Retreat is horror plain and simple.

Characters as portrayed by Chelsea Jenish, Sofia Banzhaf and Robert Nolan are perfectly cast as they lend their combined talents to a tale that all three seem committed to pulling together. Lee does not seem to be in rush to allow blood splatter consistently through the film's full 95-minute running time and instead uses her DVD chapters wisely to form a setting and atmosphere that the film will heavily rely upon.

Silent Retreat won Best Canadian Film at the 2013 Toronto After Dark Film Festival, but you can remove the "Canadian" from the award plaque and you would still be left with a viable and enjoyable film worthy of our attention.

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